A former acquaintance has described David Sharaz as a ‘clown’ and disclosed how their relationship deteriorated due to his slanderous posts about Linda Reynolds on social media.
Sharaz, who is married to former political staffer Brittany Higgins, has been mandated to compensate the ex-federal senator for a series of online remarks he made during 2022 and 2023.
Last week, WA Supreme Court Justice Paul Tottle ruled that Sharaz must pay Reynolds $92,000 in damages, along with legal expenses that are anticipated to surpass $500,000.
Sharaz is also jointly liable with Higgins to pay $135,000 in damages over a separate post they shared about Reynolds.
Gregg Easton, a former radio broadcaster, weighed in on the saga on Friday, branding his former friend Sharaz a self-entitled and delusional ‘clown’.
Mr Easton and Sharaz were journalism classmates at the University of Canberra in 2011.
Their friendship came to an end more than ten years later when Easton stated he attempted to caution his former friend about some of his comments prior to Bruce Lehrmann’s criminal trial for rape by leaving a comment on Sharaz’s LinkedIn.
Easton asserted that Sharaz then reported him to his employer, resulting in Easton receiving a formal warning at work for violating social media guidelines.
Brittany Higgins and her husband David Sharaz were sued by former senator Linda Reynolds over a series of social media posts
Gregg Easton blasted his old university mate Sharaz as a ‘clown’ in a scathing Facebook post
Easton was forthright in his critique of Sharaz, explicating their conflict in a harsh private Facebook post, which was accessed by The Australian‘s Media Diary column.
‘This clown was a fellow classmate when I was at university in Canberra, and I foolishly once regarded him as a friend,’ Easton wrote.
‘That is, until his spiteful reaction after I warned him that some of his social media posts about an ongoing legal case at the time (we all know which one) could be contemptuous and some also defamatory.
‘In response, he regarded anyone who didn’t agree with him as a supporter for the ‘other side’ (which I wasn’t) and then tried to big-note himself by going after me with my employer at the time.
‘It was a slight inconvenience; however, his pathetic reputation was already public.’
Easton then weighed in on the court outcome.
‘This is karma for the self-entitled and delusional “would-be-if he-could-be” who rarely put in the hard work for anything.’
Now semi-retired, Easton declined to comment further on the post, telling The Australian that the post ‘spoke for itself’.
Gregg Easton branded David Sharaz as a ‘self-entitled and delusional ‘would-be-if he-could-be”
Higgins was ordered in the same court to pay Reynolds $315,000 in damages plus $26,000 in interest, along with paying 80 per cent of her legal fees, which, combined with her own legal bills, is an estimated $2million bill.
Higgins is appealing elements of her costly defamation battle loss to her former boss, adding another chapter to the bitter legal saga.
The former political staffer is appealing the damages award and the costs order, according to documents filed in the WA Court of Appeal last week.
Ms Higgins is also seeking to challenge the finding that she breached a 2021 deed of settlement between the pair with an Instagram post referring to her being a defamation victim.
She previously apologised to Reynolds after the former defence minister emerged victorious from the duo’s high-profile five-week defamation trial, which ended in September 2024.
Justice Paul Tottle found Ms Higgins’ social media posts carried an array of imputations.
David Sharaz’s decade-long friendship with old uni classmate Gregg Easton ended over his defamatory social media posts about former federal senator Linda Reynolds (left)
They included claims that Reynolds engaged in a campaign of harassment against Ms Higgins, mishandled her rape allegation and engaged in questionable conduct during Bruce Lehrmann’s aborted criminal trial for rape.
She alleges former co-worker Lehrmann raped her in the senator’s ministerial suite.
A Federal Court judge overseeing a defamation case launched by Lehrmann against Network Ten found Ms Higgins was, on the balance of probabilities, raped by her former co-worker in the office.
Lehrmann is appealing that finding and has always denied the rape allegations.
